A new study published recently has shown that bacterial colonies have an additional channel of communication than previously thought-they can communicate through ionic channels between cells. This allows bacteria in a colony to exchange data through electrical impulses; electrically charges particles (ions) in a manner remarkably similar to how a brain’s neurons communicate with one another!

This new study is fascinating to me, as one of the principal concepts in The Symbiont Factor was that a bacterial colony acts more like a multicellular organism than a group of single celled organisms. Professor Eshel Ben-Jacob had shown this communication ability through his many research studies, and was the first (as far as I know) to profess that colonies functioned in a logical intelligent manner. In my book, I show how gut bacteria influence the host organism to facilitate their continued survival and reproduction (traits normally attributed to far more complex organisms) by altering our metabolism, gut function, appetite for different items, brain function and many other variables.

This new study should make the health of your symbiont bacterial colony even more of a priority!

This is an article that I wrote for Clint Paddison, to use for his Paddison Program for Rheumatoid Arthritis. Clint successfully healed himself from RA, and took the extraordinary step of teaching other people how to do it! I’m sharing the article here for my own blog readers.
Rheumatoid Arthritis is a progressive, debilitating autoimmune inflammatory arthritis. The site of actual damage is the synovial membrane of the joint itself, often causing severe angulation deformities of the joint when not controlled. Hands are the most commonly affected area, often in a symmetrical pattern. As it is an inflammatory disorder, the inflammation can also affect the heart, lungs, or other areas of the body. The portions of the immune system that have been identified are the cytokine (inflammatory immune factor) Tumor Necrosis Alpha or TNF-α, Interleukin-6 or IL-6 and Interleukin-17 or IL-17. There are others involved of course but these are the major therapeutic targets for the condition.

It is best to refer to the accompanying drawing to understand the relationship between these factors, as immune function is complex. We have a type of T-cell in our immune system which is called a T-Regulatory cell or Treg. These cells regulate the activity of T-helper cells or Th. The T-helper cells produce cytokines, such as TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-17, which in this case are the prime suspects in this crime!

Our immune system, and the T cells in particular, receive much of their instruction from the microbiome in our gut. Our gut bacteria directly interact with Treg cells, and through that mechanism help to regulate the cytokine system. This interaction has been quite specifically studied down to the genus and species involved.

The species of gut bacteria found to regulate the immune system and reduce inflammation by reducing IL-6, TNF-α and IL-17 include Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium genus. These organisms have been found to grow well when our gut is reasonably active, a condition that results when we are not in a highly stressed state. They grow well when we have a diet that includes fruits, vegetables and fish. It should not be surprising that this same diet is known to be good for the heart and blood vessels, as atherosclerosis and heart disease are promoted by inflammation.

At least one species, Prevotella copri, is strongly associated with RA. This organism drives the levels of inflammatory IL-17 higher. It thrives in a high-carbohydrate diet, so make sure that your diet includes healthy anti-inflammatory fats and good protein! Also, its growth can be suppressed by seeding and feeding with probiotics, prebiotics, and diet. Another category of organism, segmented filamentous bacteria or SFB, is what initiates the function of the IL-17 cytokine. While getting it started is important, too much SFB can also keep IL-17 levels too high.

Now having identified the immune factors, let’s look at what affects them!
-Progesterone suppresses IL-6 and IL-17
-Estrogen suppresses IL-6 and IL-17
-Microbiome also influences both

Both hormones are elevated around the time of ovulation until the onset of menstruation; essentially during the interval of a woman’s period when she is fertile. Both of these hormones drop off at the onset of menstruation, triggering the sloughing of endometrial lining and blood. Both hormones increase in concentrations during pregnancy, only dropping precipitously at childbirth. It is important to consider that one of the things a woman’s body does in preparation for pregnancy and during pregnancy is to create an increased immune tolerance. If this were not the case, the immune system could treat the developing child as a tumor and attack it, something which actually does happen sometimes and results in miscarriage. It should also be noted that another thing that progesterone does is to reduce inflammation, which is great prior to childbirth, but also may reduce the symptoms of RA during menses or pregnancy—providing a second pathway that explains the relief.

What options does that leave, other than enjoying the brief hormone-induced RA interlude or having another child? Well, progesterone and vitamin D have been used to treat brain inflammation. Certainly a woman should consider using some of the natural and OTC progesterone preparations such as wild yam extract, particularly if evaluation of her existing hormone levels show that there is room for addition of progesterone without levels becoming unnaturally high. Now for the shocker: men also have progesterone, in levels comparable to women during the follicular phase of ovulation. It is converted into testosterone in men, and inhibits the conversion of testosterone into DHT—that nasty little product that causes male pattern baldness and gynecomastia (aka “man-boobs”). Does that mean that men should use low levels of progesterone? Quite possibly! It isn’t the “feminizing hormone” that estrogen is, and its use in men has some precedent already.

Systemic inflammation has the effect of making hormone receptors on the actual cells less functional, so that the hormones do not work as well. Reducing inflammation should therefore also make your existing hormones (progesterone and estrogen in this example) work more effectively. Of course, reducing inflammation helps RA directly as well, since it is an inflammatory condition. Cultivating a diverse and healthy microbiome is at the top of that list, and involves probiotics, prebiotics, diet, lifestyle, stress levels, and avoidance of toxins.

In summary, the sex hormones estrogen and progesterone both inhibit inflammation via inhibition of the IL-6 and IL-17 cytokines. These are the immune molecules that target the actual joint tissue in RA, and they are produced by T-helper cells, which are regulated by T-regulatory cells, which talk to gut bacteria across the intestinal wall to get their instructions. So, healthier gut bacteria means better immune control. Healthier gut bacteria also means better hormone levels and better hormone sensitivity, so it’s a win-win. If getting pregnant is not in your immediate future, and the brief hormone boost afforded by menses is insufficient, supplementation with progesterone may be worth considering in addition to a microbiome-healthy diet with good prebiotics and probiotics. Of course, all of these decisions are best made with the help of some labwork when possible. Identifying your existing microbiome can help to point the direction for improvement whether that means growing more Bifidobacteria or inhibiting the growth of Prevotella copri. In any case, optimize your hormones, and get those symbionts in shape so they can retrain your immune system!
References:
1: Andersson A, Grahnemo L, Engdahl C, Stubelius A, Lagerquist MK, Carlsten H,
Islander U. IL-17-producing γδT cells are regulated by estrogen during
development of experimental arthritis. Clin Immunol. 2015 Sep 28;161(2):324-332.
doi: 10.1016/j.clim.2015.09.014. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 26423309.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26423309
2: Kim KW, Kim HR, Kim BM, Cho ML, Lee SH. Th17 Cytokines Regulate
Osteoclastogenesis in Rheumatoid Arthritis. Am J Pathol. 2015 Sep 8. pii:
S0002-9440(15)00445-9. doi: 10.1016/j.ajpath.2015.07.017. [Epub ahead of print]
PubMed PMID: 26362732.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26362732
3: Mortaz E, Adcock IM, Ricciardolo FL, Varahram M, Jamaati H, Velayati AA,
Folkerts G, Garssen J. Anti-Inflammatory Effects of Lactobacillus Rahmnosus and
Bifidobacterium Breve on Cigarette Smoke Activated Human Macrophages. PLoS One.
2015 Aug 28;10(8):e0136455. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0136455. eCollection 2015.
PubMed PMID: 26317628; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4552661.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4552661/

In summary, the sex hormones estrogen and progesterone both inhibit inflammation via inhibition of the IL-6 and IL-17 cytokines. These are the immune molecules that target the actual joint tissue in RA, and they are produced by T-helper cells, which are regulated by T-regulatory cells, which talk to gut bacteria across the intestinal wall to get their instructions. So, healthier gut bacteria means better immune control. Healthier gut bacteria also means better hormone levels and better hormone sensitivity, so it’s a win-win. If getting pregnant is not in your immediate future, and the brief hormone boost afforded by menses is insufficient, supplementation with progesterone may be worth considering in addition to a microbiome-healthy diet with good prebiotics and probiotics. Of course, all of these decisions are best made with the help of some labwork when possible. Identifying your existing microbiome can help to point the direction for improvement whether that means growing more Bifidobacteria or inhibiting the growth of Prevotella copri. In any case, optimize your hormones, and get those symbionts in shape so they can retrain your immune system!

One of the underlying themes in The Symbiont Factor is that of parasitic or symbiont influences on host behavior. I gave an example of a parasite that attacks bees and makes them do their bidding, as well as the rather famous example of Toxoplasma gondii which infects rats and makes them attracted to cats to complete its life cycle. Well, it looks like the ZomBees have made the news! Here’s an article about the issue, and how it makes the bees abandon their hive. http://phys.org/news/2015-10-zombee-scientists-track-honeybee-killer.html

I’ve been working on rewriting my book description, as I’ve never liked the one I used. So, today’s post is all about updates on TSF. I’m working on the next book too, and it’s all about applying the information from TSF to everyday life! So, here’s the update so far, with a linky at the bottom:

What if many of the things you thought you knew about being human did not actually work the way you were taught?

What if scientific research into gut bacteria had revealed huge amounts of information about their role in human function, health, emotions and appetite and healthcare hadn’t caught up at all?

What if you could find out the key to controlling your weight without starving yourself or undergoing dangerous surgery?

What if the book you’re looking at could teach you about the explosion of scientific research on the microbiome, without you having to read a few thousand studies to understand it?

You’ve probably heard that our gut bacteria vastly outnumber our human cells, and our gut bacteria’s gene pool includes more than one hundred times the gene count as our human cells. What does that mean and how does it work?

If you’re interested in knowing more about “what makes us tick” physically and emotionally, how to hurt less and age more gracefully, then this book is for you!

If you’re tired of books that state the author’s opinion or make broad claims without scientific backing or support, this book includes about 1300 peer-reviewed research studies, and the e-book has links to those studies on the National Library of Health/National Library of Medicine.

One of the inspirations for this book was research published by the late Prof. Eshel Ben-Jacob, a brilliant Israeli researcher. I was able to share this book with him before he passed away, and this is what he said about it:

“This excellent and long needed book presents in a clear and sound manner the recent dramatic findings about our gut bacteria. These thousands of trillions microorganisms living inside us play a crucial role in regulating our well-being throughout life. The new message is of great importance to the entire medical community, life sciences researchers, as well as the general public. Realizing the role of gut bacteria can help each of us to better understand the effect of nutrients, as mediated by the gut bacteria, on our body in health, in disease and in special times, such as pregnancy, nursing or periods of high stress. For example, we now understand that the massive use of antibiotics in children, adults and agriculture has endangered our vital microbiome and is liable to cause diseases such as Type 2 diabetes on a global scale. The gut microbiome is emerging as a vital part of humanity, without which health and happiness are severely compromised. The time has come for this knowledge to be widely understood!”

Professor Eshel Ben-Jacob, International member of the American Philosophical Society

Professor of Physics
The Maguy-Glass Professor
in Physics of Complex Systems
School of Physics and Astronomy
Tel Aviv University, 69978 Tel Aviv, Israel